Aston Villa let the wind out of Manchester City’s sails with a 1-0 win at Villa Park, as Matty Cash’s first-half goal was enough to hand Manchester City their first Premier League defeat since August. In doing so, Villa became only the second club in the top flight ever to follow a sequence of five games without a win with four victories in a row.
City, who had scored the first goal in their last 10 matches, were left stunned when Cash put Villa ahead after 20 minutes. The corner was played short to the Polish full-back, who after getting past Bernardo Silva, fired a powerful left-foot shot into the far corner of the goal past a Donnarumma who made no attempt to save it. After that, Erling Haaland was found with a great chance to level the score but the very determined Emiliano Martínez got the better of the Norwegian striker.
The first half of the game was also marred for Villa with an injury to Emiliano Buendía, with Jadon Sancho coming on to make his first Premier League home appearance. The Manchester United loan player was energetic, and he and John McGinn came close to making it 2-0.
Despite a late surge from City — and a stoppage-time goal from Haaland which was ruled out — Villa managed to keep the lead and record a fantastic win.The win moves Unai Emery’s side up to seventh position and only one point away from the fourth-placed City who have now lost their last nine matches in all competitions.
